I'm glad to announce that my will I wrote last night doesn't have to be used - yet. I didn't die of Ck's sandwiches. Actually, I used Joycelyn as my personal lab rat. She innocently took out a slice and started eating it. I leaned forward and watched carefully for any adverse reactions. I bet Ck was nervous. Once I saw that the experiment didn't reflect any negative results, I started on my sandwich. I hereby officially award her an "A" for her better-than-subway sandwich.

The cycling plan started from Ck and her sudden crave for cycling. She got me infected and I decided that I really wanted to go cycling as well. Joycelyn.. poor her, she got dragged along. We decided to go to East Coast Park for cycling in the afternoon. Joycelyn had 3 students less today so she could finish earlier.

We rented our bikes near Macs. I rarely explore that part of East Coast Park, partly because my parents prefer to have their headquarters at the hawker centre. There was the usual weekend crowd to contend with, but it got better as we cycled along the more ulu parts of the park. I saw a few weird sports going on. Times must have changed. There was this parachute thing that has a surf board attached to the bottom via a rope line. So the person wake boards using the wind energy. There were also some kids playing with some new, latest skateboard, the type that is hard to fall over on and can be detached. However, I find it quite slow, less thrilling and less technically demanding compared to the original skateboard. There was also a guy riding a bicycle with 4 small wheels in the front. There were also other weird things going on but the list would be endless. Weird right? Or is it just that I'm getting old and becoming less able to keep up with the changing times?

We cycled around along the track which led us to the extreme end of East Coast Park. Even there, we didn't stop and continued venturing through the park connector into Changi Beach Park. That park was mainly an 8km stretch of straight road that ran parallel to the Changi Airport runway. While cycling, we could enjoy watching planes take off. We didn't know whether or not to turn back, but in the end, we cycled all the way to the end, from the end of the runway to the back of the airport terminals. We took a short, really short break of buying drinks before going back to East Coast Park. That was another 8km back.

Ck, the photo-sensitive one, was probably the only one who had some source of motivation to cycle faster. Whenever she was directly under the sun, she would cycle faster to avoid looking like a kicking cooked lobster. That left Joycelyn and I behind trying to catch up. But of course, once we were in a shady area, she would lack the spirit of determination and start lagging behind.

While on the way back to return our bikes, we stopped by at some slabs of cement to rest for a few minutes. I had a bad butt-ache and my thighs were starting to hurt. While cycling, the wind became unusually strong. This was bad because more wind meant more resistance. When the wind became too strong, resistive force = applied force and there was no resultant force. No matter how hard we cycled, we couldn't move forward much = no work done. The wind didn't die down at all. In fact, it became even stronger. I think those people cycling in the opposite direction had a good time because the wind was pushing them along.

Joycelyn was a useful meteorologist. She calls it cloud watching. She predicted that it was going to rain, and it did. I could see that visibility was poor a few km out at sea, which meant it was raining there. And going by how strong the wind was, it wouldn't be long before the wind blew the storm cloud over to East Coast. We were currently on our long return journey. We cycled quite far out and had to retrace that in order to return our bikes. We were in a mad rush to cover as much distance as possible before the rain came, but the wind was so strong that it was hard to go fast. Eventually, it started drizzling. It became a heavy downpour almost suddenly. All the shelters were swarmed with people and bikes. Every second out there made us increasingly soaked. We finally squeezed into a shelter and waited for the rain to die down a bit.

We ventured out a few minutes later despite the rain and continued our journey (to the east?). The wind didn't get any better and so our thighs were really tortured. My bike gear didn't seem to be working and it was at high gear all the time. That meant a lot of force was needed for one cycle. We finally reached the bike rental shop and returned our bikes. My, the sensation when you get off the bike... Couldn't even walk properly.

We practically hobbled over to Macs to rest for a while. The feeling when we sank into the plastic chairs there was - shiok. Good thing it wasn't cushion or we'd have been stuck there for a very long time.

We then flagged a taxi to go to Tanah Merah. Getting out of the cab was a chore. It's the feeling you get when you have to wake up for school early in the morning. You have to, but it's almost some sort of irresistible temptation to continue staying put. I nearly had a tragic accident while climbing over a curb. My brain was still calculating bicycle wheel heights and so I lifted my leg too high. Careless mistake. I almost fell and that sent Ck and Joycelyn in to a laughing fit.

In total, we covered about 50km in 3 hours of cycling. It was tiring and fun. Felt quite healthy after that. I hope my legs survive tomorrow. I hope I don't crash onto the floor while trying to get off my bed tomorrow.